Sane Bike Loony Rider: Ep3 The Century Mark
In the story of the ride I'm about to share with you, there will be a lot of moments where you may think I'm too crazy for my own good and simultaneously impressed with my level of determination to do what I want to do. But above all, I hope you enjoy reading about this ride and can share my experience.
So, after confirming my participation for the long ride on Sunday, I went out to get myself some cycling shorts. Now, I maintain that they do feel a bit odd to wear, but are absolute necessary for long rides.
Now, I'm sure you've got some idea of how long this ride was from the headline, but to be exact, this was going to be 110km ride. Yep, I was going on a 100k+ ride a day after the max I'd ever done was a 30k ride. This would seem like a bad idea to anyone with a bit of common sense, but I decided to go ahead with it, especially since I'd been invited to it gave me confidence that I was ready for it. This was gonna be a loong ride, so earlier start aka 5 AM so was outta house by 4:45 AM. Packing the cam with the fish eye add on, couple of bars of chocolate and the water bottle, I rode off into the night. There were a total of 7 of us. Three familiar faces, and three new. One of whom was clearly a cut above us in terms of energy and riding skills. as I found out soon after. From the city till the first leg of the highway, I managed to keep pace with the fast guys in front, but the small stop to wait for the others broke my momentum. From then till the next mini-stop, I was in between the fast guys who were way ahead and the pace guys. I even managed to stop for a quick snap.
I did get a bit bored of riding by myself after a while so I slowed down to join the pace group. By the time we reached the airport toll, about 30k into the ride, only the fastest guy had gone on ahead with a huge lead thanks to our stops. We took another pause right after the toll to check the route and the distance left, till our destination, Nandi Hills. While waiting, I saw the contestants for what I vaguely remember as the first Bike Racing event in B'lore being held near the airport. They zipped past on their monstrous beauties, roaring into the distance, the sweet sounds of those highly tuned engines still audible long after they had gone from sight. That gave me a bit of boost in energy and morale for the next leg of the journey. About 40k in, our group of 6 stopped to eat some fruit and protein. This break too slowed me down as my muscles had cooled down. Soon after we turned off the highway to go up the road to Nandi Hills. But an unpleasant surprise struck me. About 1.5km into the climb, I felt this drag and bump from the rear wheel, but I thought it was just the loose stones on the road and my tiredness in pedaling uphill. After another 500m I decided to pull over to see the cause of the bumpiness, I thought it would just be a stone stuck in the treads. But lo behold, I had a flat tyre. Now, that is not a good feeling, when you're on your first long ride, 45k from home. But as luck would have it, I had a spare tire tube and we were right near a repair shop. One of the guys stayed behind to help me out, and I'm thankful for him and his know-how of the cycle basics. After about 30 minutes, we were back on our way, but by now my legs were cool and a bit sore and my confidence had taken a hit too. Oh, a note about how helpful and polite the locals were, thought they spoke crude Hindi and I didn't speak even a syllable of the local language.
The guy who stayed with me, kept pace with me in case I needed help and to give me company as we pushed on and up. Slowly I regained my confidence and my rhythm and we were making decent time again. We soon caught up with the rest at the base of the hill. Except for the fast guy who had made the climb all the way to the top and would be joining us at a later point. We took some snaps, rested a bit and nibbled some dry fruits before heading back down. The plan was to eat breakfast at the restaurant located at the point we turned off the highway.
The 8k ride back down seemed shorter with the goal of food in mind. Also because it was mostly downhill and I'd recovered my rhythm and enthusiasm. We stopped for like an hour, resting our legs and sore butts. We restocked our waters and headed out as the fast guy joined us at the crossing. From there, we decided to take an alternate route back to town, it would be roughly the same distance, with less traffic and would be more scenic.
By now however, the sun was up and bearing down on us. The cool winds helped but we took breaks at shorted intervals to be on the safer side. I wish I'd taken some snaps to share with you all but I was too engrossed in the scenic route and enjoying it. The twists and turns, the green fields, the occasional ponds, almost like a cover of a story book like the Malgudi Days. We made our way back to the city, and as soon as we were in, the traffic made it even more tiring. We stuck to the service roads, going on the flat roads and not up flyovers. We still managed a good pace though. We came to a point where the long climb up the flyover was the optimum route, but in the consensus the women said no way, and I thought "Thank god". So we headed down below and in B'lore's typical fashion for poorly designed roads, we found ourselves navigating through the narrow streets of the neighbourhood on a mild detour. Through a mix of google maps and guidance from the locals, we made our way out. But by then, the group had split into two groups taking different routes. The group I was with made good time and we were soon on roads familiar to the others. However, there was one issue.
On this route, came one last uphill battle, one referred to the group as the "Mother of all climbs in the city route", but we braved through it. With that, we soon found ourselves getting of our cycles at the end point of the ride, moaning and groaning. Our group reached first, and techincally I finished second(this was no race but still). We all stretched to avoid cramps and while the others stayed behind to rest and eat, I excused myself and headed home to my bed wherein I took a hot shower and slept like a log.
We had set off at 5:30 AM and we finished at 3:30 PM, a total of 10 hours on the road, I'd covered a 115 kms in that time, a personal best that will stay for some time. A risk of putting my body on the limit, but I'm glad I did this ride, and I know there will be more challenging ones to come. We could have done it faster, fewer or shorter breaks, faster pace. But thankfully we didn't. Especially for an impatient guy like me, this was a blessing, for at the end of the trip we could all still walk and stand and sit without too much pain. Otherwise we'd all be too sore to move and might have even injured ourselves. This was one of the best rides till date and I'm glad I took part. Till next time.
Hope you enjoyed the post, feel free to share and comment.
So, after confirming my participation for the long ride on Sunday, I went out to get myself some cycling shorts. Now, I maintain that they do feel a bit odd to wear, but are absolute necessary for long rides.
Now, I'm sure you've got some idea of how long this ride was from the headline, but to be exact, this was going to be 110km ride. Yep, I was going on a 100k+ ride a day after the max I'd ever done was a 30k ride. This would seem like a bad idea to anyone with a bit of common sense, but I decided to go ahead with it, especially since I'd been invited to it gave me confidence that I was ready for it. This was gonna be a loong ride, so earlier start aka 5 AM so was outta house by 4:45 AM. Packing the cam with the fish eye add on, couple of bars of chocolate and the water bottle, I rode off into the night. There were a total of 7 of us. Three familiar faces, and three new. One of whom was clearly a cut above us in terms of energy and riding skills. as I found out soon after. From the city till the first leg of the highway, I managed to keep pace with the fast guys in front, but the small stop to wait for the others broke my momentum. From then till the next mini-stop, I was in between the fast guys who were way ahead and the pace guys. I even managed to stop for a quick snap.
I did get a bit bored of riding by myself after a while so I slowed down to join the pace group. By the time we reached the airport toll, about 30k into the ride, only the fastest guy had gone on ahead with a huge lead thanks to our stops. We took another pause right after the toll to check the route and the distance left, till our destination, Nandi Hills. While waiting, I saw the contestants for what I vaguely remember as the first Bike Racing event in B'lore being held near the airport. They zipped past on their monstrous beauties, roaring into the distance, the sweet sounds of those highly tuned engines still audible long after they had gone from sight. That gave me a bit of boost in energy and morale for the next leg of the journey. About 40k in, our group of 6 stopped to eat some fruit and protein. This break too slowed me down as my muscles had cooled down. Soon after we turned off the highway to go up the road to Nandi Hills. But an unpleasant surprise struck me. About 1.5km into the climb, I felt this drag and bump from the rear wheel, but I thought it was just the loose stones on the road and my tiredness in pedaling uphill. After another 500m I decided to pull over to see the cause of the bumpiness, I thought it would just be a stone stuck in the treads. But lo behold, I had a flat tyre. Now, that is not a good feeling, when you're on your first long ride, 45k from home. But as luck would have it, I had a spare tire tube and we were right near a repair shop. One of the guys stayed behind to help me out, and I'm thankful for him and his know-how of the cycle basics. After about 30 minutes, we were back on our way, but by now my legs were cool and a bit sore and my confidence had taken a hit too. Oh, a note about how helpful and polite the locals were, thought they spoke crude Hindi and I didn't speak even a syllable of the local language.
The guy who stayed with me, kept pace with me in case I needed help and to give me company as we pushed on and up. Slowly I regained my confidence and my rhythm and we were making decent time again. We soon caught up with the rest at the base of the hill. Except for the fast guy who had made the climb all the way to the top and would be joining us at a later point. We took some snaps, rested a bit and nibbled some dry fruits before heading back down. The plan was to eat breakfast at the restaurant located at the point we turned off the highway.
The 8k ride back down seemed shorter with the goal of food in mind. Also because it was mostly downhill and I'd recovered my rhythm and enthusiasm. We stopped for like an hour, resting our legs and sore butts. We restocked our waters and headed out as the fast guy joined us at the crossing. From there, we decided to take an alternate route back to town, it would be roughly the same distance, with less traffic and would be more scenic.
By now however, the sun was up and bearing down on us. The cool winds helped but we took breaks at shorted intervals to be on the safer side. I wish I'd taken some snaps to share with you all but I was too engrossed in the scenic route and enjoying it. The twists and turns, the green fields, the occasional ponds, almost like a cover of a story book like the Malgudi Days. We made our way back to the city, and as soon as we were in, the traffic made it even more tiring. We stuck to the service roads, going on the flat roads and not up flyovers. We still managed a good pace though. We came to a point where the long climb up the flyover was the optimum route, but in the consensus the women said no way, and I thought "Thank god". So we headed down below and in B'lore's typical fashion for poorly designed roads, we found ourselves navigating through the narrow streets of the neighbourhood on a mild detour. Through a mix of google maps and guidance from the locals, we made our way out. But by then, the group had split into two groups taking different routes. The group I was with made good time and we were soon on roads familiar to the others. However, there was one issue.
On this route, came one last uphill battle, one referred to the group as the "Mother of all climbs in the city route", but we braved through it. With that, we soon found ourselves getting of our cycles at the end point of the ride, moaning and groaning. Our group reached first, and techincally I finished second(this was no race but still). We all stretched to avoid cramps and while the others stayed behind to rest and eat, I excused myself and headed home to my bed wherein I took a hot shower and slept like a log.
We had set off at 5:30 AM and we finished at 3:30 PM, a total of 10 hours on the road, I'd covered a 115 kms in that time, a personal best that will stay for some time. A risk of putting my body on the limit, but I'm glad I did this ride, and I know there will be more challenging ones to come. We could have done it faster, fewer or shorter breaks, faster pace. But thankfully we didn't. Especially for an impatient guy like me, this was a blessing, for at the end of the trip we could all still walk and stand and sit without too much pain. Otherwise we'd all be too sore to move and might have even injured ourselves. This was one of the best rides till date and I'm glad I took part. Till next time.
Hope you enjoyed the post, feel free to share and comment.
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